I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Long-running Buddhist Genocide In Bangladesh

Last year, the Bangladeshi police
themselves set fire to about 3,000 houses of minority Buddhist people in
Chittagong Hill Tract. Most recently, the Bangladesh Army killed Romel Chakma,
an indigenous student leader. He was only 18 and had one eye. The government
forced the media to bury the news.

What is most perplexing is the silence of the international media and
so-called humanitarian organisations. The Bangladesh government at present is
carrying out atrocities against religious and ethnic minorities. Some foreign
organisations helped me to flee to safety in Germany after nine of my
colleagues were hacked to death by extremists.

Unfortunately, all the minorities of
the country are not as fortunate. Last year, the police themselves set fire to
about 3,000 houses of minority people. Most recently, the Bangladesh Army
killed Romel Chakma, an indigenous student leader. He was only 18 and had one
eye. The army decided to pour Kerosene over his dead body and set it on fire.

The government forced the media to bury
the news. It is different in Bangladesh; nobody cares about minority people
anyway. What is most perplexing is the silence of the international media and
so-called humanitarian organisations. Please let the world know about the
realities in Bangladesh. I know this will not be a popular news, but it is
important news. People need to know it.

Murder of Romel Chakma in the Chittagong hill tract

Romel Chakma was a student and was
taking the HSC examination which is equivalent to ‘A’ levels in Bangladesh.
Surviving the dogfight of realities in a developing country with only one
working eye is really not just another ball in the park. Nobody knows how crude
the future would have been to Romel, yet everyone could see the spirit in him.

Physically, Yes! he was short-sighted.
But the fire inside told him to keep going the extra mile. The fire inside told
him to stand not only for himself but also for other students. Probably, that
same fire inside was too much to handle and that is why the Bangladesh Army
decided to pour Kerosene over his dead body and set it on fire.

Romel Chakma was the General Secretory
of the Naniyarchar unit of the Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP), which is the
student wing of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS). The latter
organisation is largely known for its long struggle against the Bangladesh
government for the recognition of the ethnic identity and rights of the
indigenous tribes of the Hill Tracts.

On 5th of April, 2017 Romel Chakma was taken by the Bangladesh Army
while he was out shopping. One, Major Tanvir was in charge of the operation.
Tanvir and his men believed that it is possible for a person to set a truck
ablaze with such physical disabilities. They literally dragged the slender
built him to the camp and tortured him for the whole day. His spirits told him
to keep going on, but his physique could not take the beatings anymore. The
student leader collapsed.

Romel’s story may sound like a typical
arrest of a wrong suspect and implementation of third-degree interrogation. But
it is NOT. Definitely, the interrogation methods were torturous but there were
no arrests whatsoever. For starter, there was not even a case filed against him
to make the arrest.

Police even did not know of the
incident until the evening, when the army decided to hand him over to the
police. The local cops denied accepting him due to the severity of the physical
condition he was in.

The Army later took him to the local hospital, who also refused to treat
Romel seeing his debilitated situation and recommended them to take him to
Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), which is the best medical
facility in the region. On 19th of April Romel breathed his last while he was
under treatment at CMCH.

His death put an end to his life but
not misery. At first, the army refused to give his family the dead body. Later
cremation took place on 23rd of April in the presence of the parents of the
deceased. The Army just wanted to give a small tribute to the so-called arson,
they had added kerosene to fasten up the cremation process. To help the
grieving family the army did not even let the parents get close to the body.
The police and the Army are blaming each other for the incident.

Kidnapping & Murder of Kalpana Chakma

The Romel Chakma incident is not the
first of its kind in Bangladesh. In 1996, another young political activist
Kalpana Chakma alongside with two of her elder brothers was abducted by the
then lieutenant Ferdous Kaiser Khan and his men. The brothers were able to flee
away from their captors but nobody knows what really happened to her. It’s been
more than 20 years and she is still missing and her kidnappers are still at
large.

More recently, in late 2016 one of the
central leaders of PCP Bipul Chakma was arrested by the police while he was
taking his mother to the hospital, who was a cancer patient. Bipul’s mother
died a few days later and he was granted a parole for 7 hours to perform the
cremation rituals. However, the police did not remove the handcuffs even when
the religious formalities were performed. In the same year, around 2500 Santal
houses were burnt down by Bangladesh Police.

The mainstream media of the country has
been surprisingly quiet in regard to any incident related to the aboriginal
people of Bangladesh. It is not because the journos care less about them. One
thing for sure, they do care about selling news and the general people wants to
know the truth. Then what is keeping them away from delivering a sensational
news to the viewers/readers? The answer is simple – lack of empathy towards the
endemic people from the government and the power of the weapon.

The involvement of the armed forces
with these crimes makes it almost impossible for the news media to speak out
loud. On several previous occasions, the medias had to bury issues and the law
enforcement of authorities had to bring an abrupt conclusion to investigations
due to the direct relation between the crime and one or more armed force
personnel. One of the most recent incidents of such merit is the notorious rape
and murder case of one Shohagi Jahan Tonu.

Rape & Murder of Shohagi Jahan Tonu

On March 2016, Tonu’s body was found in
the Comilla Cantonment Area. Even though, when her body was recovered, it was
clearly visible that she was violated, yet the first autopsy claimed she
wasn’t. When the doctor who conducted the 2nd autopsy declared his findings of
sexual assault, he was threatened to be killed with his entire family. It’s
been over a year now, the murderers of Tonu are still to be identified.

Years after years, the crimes conducted
by the Bangladesh Army are going undocumented. One of the classic examples can
be during the period of the state of emergency from 2006 to end of 2008 the
price of lands took a sharp hike.

Generally, during a state emergency,
land prices fall down due to the strict rules and lack of methods of cleaning
the dirty laundry. Even though, rules were implemented for general people, due
to the immense amount of money came to the hand of the Army, eventually it
increased the prices by 3 to 15 times the original market value.

In reality, Bangladesh has never embraced the indigenous population as
it’s own. Even the founding father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Muzibur
Rahman had asked the non-Bengali tribal people to become Bengali when they had
asked for the referendum in the constitution which had stated the citizens of
Bangladesh would be known as Bengali.

45 years has been passed since
Bangladesh has attained its independence, yet the hill tract region is yet to
be truly liberated. Since 1979 the country is injecting people from the
mainland just to have control over the locals. Over time, the governments build
232 military camps in the hilly area. However, since the peace accord around
119 camps has been called off.

From time to time, governments went no
holds barred just to rule over of the natives of the hilly areas. While the
mainland people got new schools, they got new camps. While a child in a Dhaka
or Rajshahi was excited to meet his/her new Math or English teacher, a Chakma
or Marma child had to witness inclusion of a new troop to the existing one to
inflict further horror onto them.

(Arnab Goswami is a blogger, online activist and former journalist from
Bangladesh. He has been writing on
various social issues, including but not limited to, minority rights, women
empowerment, rise of fundamentalism, LGBTQ rights since 2008. Due to his
undaunted voice, he had been a target of the Islamists. Murders of several
like-minded bloggers-activists and the abstinence of any feasible action on the
part of the government had forced him to leave his beloved motherland.
Currently he is taking refuge in Germany.)